Where Have I Been?

Hello.

It’s been a while, quite a while. Sorry.

I never intended to take such a large break from my blog. I actually had a number of posts planned when I published my last post, but life happens. And, wow, did life decide to throw me a hell of a lot of curve balls these past few months. This is kind of my re-entry into publishing on my blog and really restarting it in preparation for the New Year. This also may be a bit of an emotional post, but it’s been an emotional past few months for me, so here it goes.

I spent most of August pretty much prepping for my trip to Portugal, which happened at the end of that month. I had never been to Europe before this trip and I have never gone on a solo trip either, which this trip partially was. This trip checked off a lot of things that I had wanted to accomplish for 2018, and I reached them. I had a really fantastic time on the trip, just relaxing and enjoying all that life had to offer, and hanging out with a really dear friend of mine. The trip was really the calm before the storm that quite literally hit the moment I arrived home from Portugal.

What has been my focus these past few months and what has really taken up the bulk of my attention and time is my family, more specifically my Dad. My Dad got sick, really sick, the kind of sick that you can’t recover from. To say that the news of my Dad’s prognosis was a devastating blow would be an understatement. It shook the foundation of my family and drastically changed what our future as a family and my own personal future would look it. I’m still trying to find a new balance and really rebuild everything that I thought was unshakable as an individual.

September and October consisted of daily hospital visits while trying to balance everything else that was happening in my life, which included work and school. I pretty much let everything else fall to the wayside, like literally everything else, including my #CiviilyReads365 challenge that I began at the beginning of the year. I even went without wearing a single ounce of makeup for nearly two months, which was extremely out of the ordinary for me and spooked a few of my co-workers.

November was really the month where trying to find a new normal began for my family and me. My Dad stabilized enough that we were able to bring him home at the beginning of the month, which was his wish and one that we as a family endeavour to fulfill to honour.

I also happened to turn 26 in November, so I’ve officially joined the late 20s club, which I really haven’t been able to process quite.

My family continues and will continue to be where my heart and the majority attention are focused on and that won’t be changing anytime soon. It’s been a really rough, emotional, and really life-altering few months for me. I didn’t expect any of this to happen and I am striving to find a balance and really a new normal for me.

2018 has turned out to be one of the most challenging years that I have ever experienced, so thank you for sticking around with me. Thank you for reading this post and look out the next few weeks for my Portugal Diary, a Romance Musing spotlight, and a few year-end posts.